Iowa Mobile Home Park Laws
Iowa's Manufactured Home Communities or Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Iowa Code chapter 562B, governs the tenancy of a resident who owns the home and rents the lot beneath it in a community of three or more homes, and its central number is ninety days: ninety days' written notice before a lot-rent increase, and ninety days' written notice from either side to end the agreement.
Cited to Iowa Code ch. 562B and 6 more sources · Verified August 18, 2026
Both periods were sixty days until 2022. There is no ceiling on how much the rent may rise, and cities and counties are barred from setting one, but an increase may not take effect before the current term expires, which in the ordinary one-year agreement means once a year. Iowa is not a good-cause state: a landlord may end a tenancy without giving a reason, subject to one limit, that it may not cancel solely to free the space for another home. Shorter notices apply to particular conduct, three days for unpaid rent or for a clear and present danger to others, and thirty days with a fourteen-day cure for other breaches, dropping to fourteen days if the same breach recurs within six months. Deposits are capped at two months' rent and must be returned or accounted for within thirty days. Residents may sell the home in place at a price of their own choosing, and the landlord's approval of the buyer as a tenant may not be unreasonably withheld. The act says nothing at all about closing a community, changing its use, relocation money, or telling residents that the community is for sale, and no state agency administers it, so disputes go to the district court, where they may be brought as small claims.
| Governing act | Manufactured Home Communities or Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — Iowa Code ch. 562B |
|---|---|
| Federal lender protections already required by state law | 3 of 8 (see the table) |
Each row below is a state rule (with its citation) or an honest "no state rule" with what governs instead — lease terms and the general landlord-tenant law still apply where the park act is silent. This page covers a resident who owns the home and rents the lot; a home rented from the park is an ordinary Iowa tenancy.
On this page: Scope · Lot rent, fees and utilities · Lease, rules and disclosure · Termination and eviction · Closure and change of use · Sale of the park · The resident's home · Federal lender protections · Common questions · Citations
A. Scope — who and what the act covers
| Rule | Iowa law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| State agency with a role in park tenancies | No state rule No state agency administers Iowa's manufactured-home community act. The section that would name an administrator is the one headed administration of remedies and enforcement, and it hands enforcement to the parties instead: any right or obligation declared by the chapter is enforceable by action unless the provision declaring it specifies a different and limited effect. Those actions go to the district court, and may be brought as a small claim. No section of the act names the attorney general, a housing agency or a licensing body. | Iowa Code § 562B.4 (2); Iowa Code § 562B.6 (1) |
| Resident may sue under the act | Yes A resident may sue under the act, and may do so as a small claim. Any right or obligation the chapter declares is enforceable by action unless the provision declaring it specifies a different and limited effect, and the district court has jurisdiction over conduct governed by the chapter. Money remedies are spread across the act rather than gathered in one section: actual damages where a landlord knowingly uses a rental agreement containing prohibited terms, punitive damages up to $200 for bad-faith retention of a deposit, up to two months' rent plus twice actual damages for an unlawful ouster or a willful cutoff of services, one month's rent plus attorney fees where the right to summon emergency help is penalized, and not less than one month's rent plus attorney fees for an abusive entry. | Iowa Code § 562B.4 (2); Iowa Code § 562B.6 (1); Iowa Code § 562B.13 (8); Iowa Code § 562B.11 (3) |
| Minimum park size for the act to apply (lots) | 3 lots Three homes bring a property inside the act. A mobile home park is any site, lot, field or tract of land upon which three or more mobile homes, manufactured homes or modular homes are placed on developed spaces and operated as a for-profit enterprise with water, sewer or septic, and electrical services available. A second route into the act, the manufactured home community, starts at ten homes and carries no for-profit or utility condition. | Iowa Code § 562B.7 (7); Iowa Code § 562B.7 (5) |
| Other size thresholds that switch rules on |
| Iowa Code § 562B.7 (5), (7); Iowa Code § 414.28A (1); Iowa Code § 335.30A (2) |
| Park-owned rental homes | Ordinary landlord-tenant law applies Renting the home itself falls under Iowa's ordinary residential landlord-tenant law rather than the community act. The community act regulates the mobile home space, defined as a parcel of land for rent designed to accommodate a mobile home and provide the required sewer and utility connections, and its definitions say expressly that a dwelling unit excludes real property used to accommodate a manufactured or mobile home. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law in chapter 562A picks the home up, defining a dwelling unit as a structure or part of a structure used as a home, residence or sleeping place, and its exclusions do not reach manufactured homes. One wrinkle: the community act's tenant-duty section drops the duty to maintain utility lines for a tenant who does not own the home, so a resident renting both the home and the space can sit under both chapters. | Iowa Code § 562B.7 (3), (8); Iowa Code § 562A.6 (3); Iowa Code § 562A.5 |
| RVs and park-model homes | No state rule The act says nothing about recreational vehicles or park-model homes. The definitions section that would draw the line describes a mobile home as a vehicle without motive power built to be used as a place for human habitation, and extends the term to manufactured homes and modular homes located in a community or park; the park definition counts mobile, manufactured and modular homes. Whether a particular recreational vehicle falls inside therefore turns on that general definition, and the act supplies no rule of its own and no qualifying period. | Iowa Code § 562B.7 (6), (7) |
| Local rent regulation of park lots | Preempted — local governments may not regulate lot rents Iowa cities and counties may not cap lot rents. A city shall not adopt or enforce any ordinance imposing any limitation on the amount of rent that can be charged for leasing private residential or commercial property, and the county powers statute carries the identical sentence. A rented mobile home space is private residential property. Both provisions leave a local government free to manage and control residential property in which it holds a property interest. The community act itself contains no preemption section, and the county home-rule section contains no rent clause. | Iowa Code § 364.3 (9); Iowa Code § 331.304 (10) |
B. Lot rent, fees and utilities
| Rule | Iowa law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Notice before a lot-rent increase | 90 days Ninety days' written notice is required before a lot-rent increase takes effect. The period was sixty days until 2022, when the legislature raised it to ninety for increases first noticed on or after May 17, 2022. Rent is defined broadly for this purpose, taking in base rent, utilities, late fees and other payments made to the landlord under the rental agreement, so the notice reaches more than the base figure, and an increase in utility rates or charges must be given in the same way unless the landlord itself received less than ninety days' notice from the utility. Notice may be hand delivered, delivered against a signed acknowledgment, served personally, mailed by both regular and certified mail, posted on the primary entrance door, or given by any method that results in it actually being received; mailed notice counts as complete four days after it is deposited and postmarked. | Iowa Code § 562B.14 (7); Iowa Code § 562B.7 (10); 2022 Iowa Acts ch. 1070 (House File 2562) §§ 3, 5, 7 |
| How often rent may be raised | An increase may not take effect before the current agreement, or any renewal or extension of it, expires; with the act's one-year default term that means once a year in the ordinary case. The limit is tied to the end of the term rather than to a fixed number of months. The rent-increase section says the effective date shall not be sooner than the expiration date of the original rental agreement or any renewal or extension of it, and the terms section makes a rental agreement run for one year unless the agreement itself specifies otherwise. The practical effect is an annual cycle wherever the one-year default holds, but a shorter term written into the agreement produces a shorter cycle, so this is not a flat twelve-month bar. | Iowa Code § 562B.14 (7); Iowa Code § 562B.10 (5) |
| Statewide limit on lot-rent increases | No state rule Iowa sets no ceiling on how much lot rent may rise. The act regulates the timing of an increase and nothing else: the terms section leaves rent to the agreement, and the rent-increase section requires ninety days' notice and defers the effective date to the end of the term without touching the amount. The only outer limit is the general power of a court to refuse to enforce a rental agreement or a provision of one that was unconscionable when made. Cities and counties are barred from supplying a ceiling of their own. | Iowa Code § 562B.10 (1); Iowa Code § 562B.14 (7); Iowa Code § 364.3 (9) |
| How a resident can challenge an increase | No state rule There is no petition, mediation or agency route against a lot-rent increase. What a resident has instead are two general provisions and the courthouse. A court may refuse to enforce a rental agreement or any provision of it that was unconscionable when made, may enforce the remainder without that provision, or may limit its application. Separately, a landlord may not retaliate by increasing rent after a good-faith complaint to a code enforcement agency, a complaint to the landlord, organizing or joining a tenants' union, or exercising rights under the act or the civil rights chapter; evidence of a complaint within one year before the alleged retaliation creates a presumption that the landlord acted in retaliation. An action may be brought as a small claim. | Iowa Code § 562B.8 (1)(a); Iowa Code § 562B.32 (1), (2); Iowa Code § 562B.6 (1) |
| Entrance fee prohibited | Yes A landlord may not require an entrance fee of any kind as a precondition to renting or occupying a space, subject to two exceptions. The prohibition does not apply to a fee for services actually rendered, or to a fee charged under a written agreement, and that second exception is wide enough to matter in practice. The same sentence covers exit fees. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(b) |
| Exit or removal fee prohibited | Yes A landlord may not require a fee for moving out of a space, subject to the same two exceptions. The prohibition reaches a fee demanded as a precondition to removing from a space, and yields to a fee for services actually rendered or one charged under a written agreement. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(b) |
| Undisclosed fees uncollectible | No state rule A charge the landlord failed to disclose is not made uncollectible by the act. The disclosure duties themselves are real: the names and addresses of the manager and the owner must be given in writing at or before the agreement is entered into and kept current, a written explanation of utility rates, charges and services must be given to a prospective tenant before signing unless utilities are paid direct to the utility company, and the community rules must be handed over before the agreement is made. The only consequence the act attaches is that a person who does not disclose the manager and owner becomes an agent of the landlord for service of process and for performing the landlord's obligations. | Iowa Code § 562B.14 (2), (4), (6)(a); Iowa Code § 562B.19 (1)(f) |
| Utility billing rules | Where the landlord's conditions of occupancy produce charges for utilities or services, the charges may not exceed the actual cost of providing them, and a rise in utility rates or charges needs the same ninety days' notice as a rent increase. Three rules work together. A landlord may not restrict a resident's choice of a seller of fuel, furnishings, goods, services or homes except where necessary to protect health, safety, aesthetic value or welfare, may standardize methods of utility connection, and where such conditions produce charges those charges may not exceed the actual cost incurred. A rise in utility rates or charges must be notified in the same way as a rent increase, unless the landlord itself received less than ninety days' notice from the utility provider, in which case no prior notice is needed for the rise to take effect. Nothing in the act authorizes metering a premises, or assessing a utility charge, contrary to applicable law, rule or tariff. If the landlord deliberately or negligently fails to supply running water or other essential services the resident may buy them and deduct the cost, recover damages based on the fall in the space's fair market value, or recover rent paid for the period, and a willful interruption of service supports up to two months' rent plus twice actual damages. | Iowa Code § 562B.16 (2); Iowa Code § 562B.14 (6)(a)–(c); Iowa Code § 562B.23A (1) |
| Submetering required or regulated | No state rule The act neither requires individual meters nor sets rules for a submetering system. The subsection that would carry such a rule points the other way, saying that nothing in the chapter authorizes a landlord to meter a premises contrary to applicable law, rule or tariff. The landlord's only metering-adjacent duty is to furnish outlets for electric, water and sewer services. How a utility is measured is therefore left to the agreement, to utility law and to the utility's own tariff. | Iowa Code § 562B.14 (6)(c); Iowa Code § 562B.16 (1)(f) |
| Lot security deposit rules | A lot deposit may not exceed two months' rent, must be held in an insured bank, credit union or savings and loan and kept separate from the landlord's own funds, and must be returned, or accounted for in writing, within thirty days after the tenancy ends. Interest earned on the deposit belongs to the landlord. The written statement must give the specific reason for keeping any part of the deposit and, where money is kept to restore the space, must specify the nature of the damages. Only three deductions are allowed: unpaid rent or other money due under the agreement, restoring the space to its condition at the start of the tenancy with ordinary wear and tear excepted, and removing, storing and disposing of an abandoned home. The landlord carries the burden of proving the reason for any withholding, and a landlord that misses the thirty days forfeits all right to keep any of it; if the resident gives no forwarding address within a year the deposit reverts to the landlord. Bad-faith retention adds punitive damages of up to $200 on top of actual damages. When the community changes hands the deposit passes to the buyer, who must give the resident written notice of the amount, and the resident has twenty days to object before the buyer's liability is capped at the stated figure. | Iowa Code § 562B.13 (1)–(8) |
C. Lease, rules and disclosure
| Rule | Iowa law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Written lease | Required if the resident asks The landlord must offer the resident the opportunity to sign a written agreement, but the act does not force one on either side. A rental agreement is defined to include agreements implied by law together with the community's valid rules, so an unwritten tenancy remains possible. Where there is a written agreement, the landlord must tender and deliver a signed copy and the resident must sign and return one fully executed copy within ten days of execution, and failing to do so is a material noncompliance by whichever side is at fault. | Iowa Code § 562B.14 (1), (5); Iowa Code § 562B.7 (11) |
| Minimum lease term that must be offered | 12 months A rental agreement runs for one year unless the agreement itself specifies a different term. The one year is a default rather than a floor: the parties may write a shorter or longer term, and whatever the term, either side may end the agreement on ninety days' written notice. The default matters most for rent, because an increase may not take effect before the current term expires. | Iowa Code § 562B.10 (5); Iowa Code § 562B.14 (7) |
| Notice to end a tenancy without cause | 90 days Either side may end a lot tenancy without giving a reason, on at least ninety days' written notice. The period was sixty days until the 2022 amendment raised it to ninety. One limit is written into the same subsection: a landlord may not cancel a rental agreement solely to make the resident's space available for another mobile home. The notice must be served by an acknowledged delivery, by personal service under the Iowa rules of civil procedure, or by posting on the primary entrance door together with mailing by both regular and certified mail, and mailed notice counts as complete four days after it is deposited and postmarked. Retaliation is separately barred, including a failure to renew after a protected complaint. | Iowa Code § 562B.10 (5); Iowa Code § 562B.27A (1), (2); 2022 Iowa Acts ch. 1070 (House File 2562) § 4 |
| Notice before park rules change | 30 days A new, changed, deleted or amended community rule takes effect only thirty days after notice to all residents. Two further limits apply. A rule adopted after the resident entered into the rental agreement binds that resident only if it does not work a substantial modification of the agreement, and any rule or condition of occupancy that is unfair and deceptive, or that does not conform to the act, is unenforceable. Every rule must in any event be written, must serve one of the four purposes the act lists, must be reasonably related to that purpose, must apply to all residents fairly, must be explicit enough to tell a person what to do, must not be a way of evading the landlord's own obligations, and must be given to a prospective resident before the agreement is made. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (1), (2) |
| Disclosure document | Written rules and terms must be given Iowa prescribes no disclosure booklet, but several things must be given in writing. The names and addresses of the person authorized to manage the community and of the owner, or a person authorized to receive service of process for the owner, must be disclosed at or before the agreement is entered into, kept current and refurnished on request. A written explanation of utility rates, charges and services must be given to a prospective resident before signing, unless utility charges are paid direct to the utility company. A copy of the community rules must be given before the agreement is entered into. The resident, in turn, fills out a standardized registration form at the start of the tenancy showing the home's make, year and serial number, whether it is paid for, any lienholder and the legal owner. | Iowa Code § 562B.14 (2), (3), (6)(a); Iowa Code § 562B.19 (1)(f); Iowa Code § 562B.27 (3) |
| Residents' right to meet and organize | Yes A landlord may not prohibit meetings between residents about community living and affairs. The protection covers meetings in the community or in its recreational hall, provided they are held at reasonable hours and when the facility is not otherwise in use. Organizing is separately protected on the termination side, because a landlord may not retaliate after a resident has organized or become a member of a tenants' union or similar organization. The wording reaches meetings between residents; it does not on its face address leafleting or visits by outside organizations. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(f); Iowa Code § 562B.32 (1)(c) |
| Owner entry onto the lot or into the home | The landlord has no right of access to a home the resident owns unless access is needed to prevent damage to the space or is a response to an emergency, and may enter onto the space to inspect it, make repairs or improvements, supply services, or show it to prospective or actual purchasers, mortgagees, tenants, workers or contractors. The line falls at the door of the home. No notice period is attached to entry onto the space. Abuse of access is dealt with on both sides: a resident who refuses lawful access lets the landlord end the agreement and recover actual damages, and a landlord that enters unlawfully, enters lawfully but in an unreasonable manner, or makes repeated demands for entry that have the effect of unreasonably harassing the resident, exposes itself to an injunction or termination by the resident and actual damages of not less than one month's rent plus attorney fees. | Iowa Code § 562B.20 (1), (2); Iowa Code § 562B.31 (1), (2) |
| Retaliation prohibited | Yes A landlord may not raise rent, cut services, bring or threaten a possession action, or decline to renew in retaliation. The protected acts are a good-faith complaint to a government agency responsible for enforcing a building or housing code, a complaint to the landlord about the duty to maintain fit premises, organizing or joining a tenants' union or similar organization, and exercising any right or remedy under the act or under the state civil rights chapter. Evidence of a complaint within one year before the alleged retaliation creates a presumption that the landlord acted in retaliation, which the trier of fact must accept unless evidence to the contrary is introduced; the presumption does not arise where the complaint came after notice of termination. Two situations are carved out: a code violation caused primarily by the resident's own lack of reasonable care, and a resident in default of rent three days after it is due. | Iowa Code § 562B.32 (1)–(3) |
D. Termination and eviction
| Rule | Iowa law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Just cause required to end a tenancy | No Iowa does not require a reason to end a lot tenancy. A rental agreement may be canceled by either party on at least ninety days' written notice, and the act sets no list of grounds the landlord must fit within. The single limit on the reason is that a landlord may not cancel solely to make the resident's space available for another mobile home. Retaliation for a protected complaint is separately barred, and the act says a landlord may terminate a tenancy only as provided in the chapter, which is what the ninety-day route provides. | Iowa Code § 562B.10 (5); Iowa Code § 562B.30 (1); Iowa Code § 562B.32 (1) |
| Grounds for termination | No state rule The act sets no closed list of grounds, because a landlord does not need a ground. What the termination sections do instead is give particular conduct a shorter notice than the ordinary ninety days: material noncompliance with the agreement, or a breach of the resident's maintenance duties materially affecting health and safety, ends the tenancy thirty days after receipt of a written notice if it is not put right within fourteen days; a repeat of substantially the same act within six months carries fourteen days and no cure; unpaid rent carries three days; conduct amounting to a clear and present danger to the health or safety of others carries three days; and refusing lawful access to the space lets the landlord end the agreement and recover actual damages. | Iowa Code § 562B.25 (1), (2); Iowa Code § 562B.25A (1); Iowa Code § 562B.10 (5) |
| Notice for nonpayment of lot rent | 3 days Three days' written notice, and the tenancy may be ended if the rent is not paid within them. The notice must state both the nonpayment and the landlord's intention to end the agreement if the rent does not arrive in that time, so the resident always has a cure window, short as it is. There is no grace period before a late fee: the act caps late fees at $12 a day or $60 a month where rent is $700 or less, and $20 a day or $100 a month where rent is above $700, but nothing delays the first one. A landlord may bring a possession action once a resident is in default of rent three days after it is due, and that is one of the carve-outs from the retaliation rule. | Iowa Code § 562B.25 (2); Iowa Code § 562B.10 (4); Iowa Code § 562B.32 (3)(b) |
| Notice for a rule or lease violation | 30 days A rule or lease violation ends the tenancy no sooner than thirty days after the resident receives the written notice, and only if the breach is not put right within fourteen days. The notice must specify the acts and omissions making up the breach and state the termination date. If the breach can be remedied by repair, by paying damages or otherwise, and the resident remedies it before the date in the notice, the agreement does not end. A separate route exists for a maintenance failure materially affecting health and safety that can be fixed by repair, replacement or cleaning: after fourteen days' written notice, or promptly in an emergency, the landlord may enter the space, have the work done in a skillful manner, and bill the actual and reasonable cost as additional rent. | Iowa Code § 562B.25 (1); Iowa Code § 562B.26 |
| Repeat-violation rule | If substantially the same act or omission recurs within six months of a notice given for it, the landlord may end the agreement on at least fourteen days' written notice, with no right to cure. The shorter notice must still specify the breach and the date the agreement ends. Cutting the other way, acceptance of performance that varied from the agreement or from later-adopted rules waives the landlord's right to end the tenancy for that breach, unless the parties agree otherwise after the breach has happened. | Iowa Code § 562B.25 (1); Iowa Code § 562B.28 |
| Time to sell or remove the home after termination | No state rule The act gives a resident no set period to sell or move the home once the tenancy has ended. The termination sections end the agreement and stop there; possession is then recovered by a forcible entry and detainer action under the eviction chapter, and a resident who stays on without consent after the term or the termination owes actual damages, rising to as much as two months' rent plus twice actual damages if the holdover is willful and not in good faith. A home left behind is dealt with under the act's abandonment section and the separate chapter on valueless homes. The only sixty-day window in the act runs the other way, as the landlord's power to require a rundown home to be removed after a sale, and a further sixty days applies to canceling the lease of a sole owner who has died. | Iowa Code § 562B.25 (3); Iowa Code § 562B.30 (2); Iowa Code § 562B.27 (1); Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(c) |
| Abandoned-home procedure | Yes The act defines abandonment and routes the home into a court procedure. A resident is treated as having abandoned the home after being absent from it without reasonable explanation for thirty days or more, during which time either rent has been in default for three days or the agreement has been ended for noncompliance; returning does not undo that status unless the resident pays every cost incurred for the space, including removal, storage, notice, attorney fees and all rent and utilities owed. The landlord must then tell the home's owner or any other claimant, including a lienholder, that they are liable for costs incurred for the space, with liability for the period before that message limited to ninety days, and the home may not be removed without a signed written clearance from the landlord confirming all debts are paid. Where the only lien is for taxes, the landlord may use the valueless-homes chapter to dispose of the home, and that action may be combined with a possession or damages claim. Where a sole owner has died and the heirs cannot be found despite due diligence, the act allows service by publication once a week for three weeks and twenty days' personal service on any lienholder. | Iowa Code § 562B.27 (1), (2); Iowa Code § 562B.10 (7)(b) |
| Mediation or dispute-resolution requirement | No state rule The act contains no mediation, arbitration or dispute-resolution requirement of any kind. The section that would carry one sends disputes to the district court, allowing an action under the chapter to be brought as a small claim, and the remedies section leaves the aggrieved party to recover appropriate damages while owing a duty to mitigate them. | Iowa Code § 562B.6 (1); Iowa Code § 562B.4 (1) |
E. Closure and change of use
| Rule | Iowa law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Notice before closure or change of use | No state rule Closing a community or changing its use triggers no special notice in Iowa. Every section of the act was read and none deals with closure, conversion or a change of land use; neither the termination subsection nor either eviction section carries a park-closing trigger. What applies when a community closes is the ordinary cancellation rule, so residents get at least ninety days' written notice and nothing more. | Iowa Code § 562B.10 (5); Iowa Code ch. 562B |
| Variants (by trigger or park size) | No state rule There are no closure variants, because there is no closure rule to vary. The act draws no distinction by trigger, by community size or by who the buyer is, and the ordinary ninety-day cancellation applies whatever the reason for closing. | Iowa Code § 562B.10 (5); Iowa Code ch. 562B |
| Relocation payment required | No state rule No relocation payment is required of anyone when a community closes. The act creates no payment duty and no state fund, and the fee section that would be its natural home deals only with entrance and exit fees. The one thing a departing resident keeps is improvements: anything except a natural lawn that the resident bought and installed on the space stays the resident's property even though fixed to or in the ground, and may be removed or disposed of before the tenancy ends, provided the space is left in substantially the same or better condition. | Iowa Code § 562B.10 (8); Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(b) |
| Relocation amounts | No state rule No relocation amounts are set, because no relocation payment is required. The act names no figure, no index and no fund for moving a home out of a closing community. | Iowa Code § 562B.10 (8); Iowa Code ch. 562B |
| Who pays relocation | None required Nobody pays relocation costs under Iowa law. The act places no payment duty on the community owner and sets up no state fund, so a resident who has to move a home when a community closes bears the cost. | Iowa Code § 562B.10 (5), (8); Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(b) |
| Notice to a government body on closure | No state rule No government body has to be told that a community is closing. There being no closure provision, there is no filing, and the act gives no agency a reporting role: enforcement is left to court action. The only filing the act mentions is unrelated, a non-resident or out-of-state corporate landlord's written designation with the secretary of state of an agent for service of process. | Iowa Code § 562B.6 (2); Iowa Code § 562B.4 (2) |
F. Sale of the park
| Rule | Iowa law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Residents must be told the park is for sale | No state rule Residents do not have to be told that a community is for sale. The section headed as dealing with the sale of a community and notices contains a single sentence, and it is about the buyer rather than the residents: on the ending of the landlord's interest, the successor takes the same legal obligations, rights and remedies, including as to all rental agreements. Residents learn of a sale only afterwards and only incidentally, because a selling landlord is relieved of liability for events after written notice of the conveyance is given to the resident, and because the deposit must be passed on with written notice of the amount and the buyer's name and address. | Iowa Code § 562B.16A; Iowa Code § 562B.17 (1); Iowa Code § 562B.13 (6), (7) |
| What triggers the notice | No state rule Nothing triggers a notice to residents before a community is sold. Marketing, listing and receiving an offer all pass without any duty to tell residents; the act's only community-sale section transfers the landlord's obligations to the buyer and says nothing about notice. | Iowa Code § 562B.16A; Iowa Code § 562B.17 (1) |
| Residents' purchase right | None required Iowa residents have no right to buy the community. There is no right of first refusal, no opportunity to negotiate and no notice-only right, whether the sale is a going-concern sale or a prelude to closure. The act's single community-sale section confers nothing on residents; it makes the buyer step into the seller's shoes for every rental agreement. | Iowa Code § 562B.16A |
| Time for residents to respond | No state rule No response window exists, because residents have no purchase right to exercise. The act sets no period for residents to organize, to ask for information or to make an offer on the community. | Iowa Code § 562B.16A |
| Resident-association threshold | No state rule No membership threshold is set for a residents' organization. The act recognizes a tenants' union or similar organization when it bars retaliation, and it protects meetings between residents about community affairs, but it gives such a group no statutory role in a sale and therefore fixes no share of residents it must represent. | Iowa Code § 562B.32 (1)(c); Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(f) |
| Transfers exempt from the sale rules | No state rule There are no exemptions to list, because there are no community-sale duties to be exempt from. The act's community-sale section applies to every ending of the landlord's interest, without carve-outs for family transfers, entity restructuring, foreclosure or tax-deferred exchanges. | Iowa Code § 562B.16A |
| Residents may assign the right to a nonprofit or municipality | No state rule Residents have no purchase right, so there is nothing to assign to a nonprofit or a municipality. The act names no eligible organization, community land trust, housing authority or local government in connection with a community sale. | Iowa Code § 562B.16A |
| Penalty for violating the sale rules | No state rule No penalty attaches to the community-sale section, which imposes no duty capable of being broken by the seller. General remedies apply to the act as a whole: any right or obligation it declares is enforceable by action, and the district court hears the claim, including as a small claim. A penalty does exist for a different transaction, the landlord's own sale of a mobile home, where a court may award monetary or equitable relief including voiding the sale, and the buyer may recover damages, any deposit taken above two months' rent, and reasonable attorney fees. | Iowa Code § 562B.16A; Iowa Code § 562B.4 (2); Iowa Code § 562B.17A (2) |
G. The resident's home
| Rule | Iowa law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Right to sell the home in place | Yes A landlord may not deny a resident the right to sell the home at a price of the resident's own choosing. The sale contemplates the buyer staying put, because the landlord's reserved power is to approve the buyer as a tenant, and that approval may not be unreasonably withheld. One removal power survives: on a sale to a third party, and in order to upgrade the quality of the community, the landlord may require a home in a rundown condition or in disrepair to be removed within sixty days. Two supporting rules keep the home saleable, since a rental agreement may not make the resident accept a designated agent for the sale of the home, nor agree to a modification that would substantially impair the ability to move the home off the space outside the listed exceptions. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(c); Iowa Code § 562B.11 (1)(d), (1)(e) |
| Park may not take a commission on the sale | Yes A landlord may not take a commission or fee out of the price the resident gets for the home, unless it actually acted as the seller's agent under a written agreement. The exception cannot be pre-wired into the lease, because a rental agreement may not provide that the resident agrees to a designated agent for the sale of the home. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(d); Iowa Code § 562B.11 (1)(d) |
| Park may screen the buyer | Yes The landlord may reserve the right to approve the buyer of the home as a tenant, but that permission may not be unreasonably withheld. The same section limits refusals of applicants generally: a landlord may not deny rental unless the applicant cannot conform to the community's rules and regulations. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (3)(a), (3)(c) |
| Buyer-approval standard and deadline | Approval may not be unreasonably withheld, and a refusal must be given to the buyer in writing with the general reason for it, though the landlord need not give a specific reason. No deadline is set for the decision. The only stated basis for refusing an applicant is that the person cannot conform to the community's rules and regulations, and those rules are themselves enforceable only if they are written, serve one of the four purposes the act lists, are reasonably related to that purpose, apply to all residents fairly, are explicit enough to tell a person what to do, are not a way of evading the landlord's obligations, and were given to the applicant before the agreement was made. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (1), (3)(a), (3)(c) |
| Home may not be rejected for age, size or style alone | No state rule Nothing in the act stops a community from refusing a home because of its age, size or style. The section that would carry such a bar aims at the buyer rather than the home, and its one provision about the home runs the other way: on a sale to a third party the landlord may require a home in a rundown condition or in disrepair to be removed within sixty days in order to upgrade the quality of the community. What limits the practice indirectly is the rule-validity test, since any community rule is enforceable only if it serves one of the four listed purposes, is reasonably related to that purpose and applies to all residents fairly. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (1), (3)(c) |
| Park may require repairs before sale | No state rule The act neither authorizes nor forbids requiring repairs before a sale. What it does authorize on a sale to a third party is removal of a home in a rundown condition or in disrepair within sixty days, which is a different power, and it forbids a lease term requiring a modification that would substantially impair the ability to move the home. A community rule demanding pre-sale repairs would stand or fall on the general rule-validity test. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (1), (3)(c); Iowa Code § 562B.11 (1)(e) |
| Right to post a For Sale sign | No state rule The act says nothing about a for-sale sign. The section listing what a landlord may not do protects the right to sell, the seller's choice of price, the buyer-approval standard and the absence of a commission, but no provision anywhere in the chapter mentions signs. A sign restriction is therefore an ordinary community rule, binding only if it meets the act's rule-validity test and only after thirty days' notice. | Iowa Code § 562B.19 (1), (2), (3) |
H. The eight federal lender protections — which ones Iowa law already requires
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require eight tenant site lease protections in every manufactured housing community loan they buy. Where state law already requires a protection of every park, a resident has it whether or not the park has agency financing. Iowa law requires 3 of 8. All 50 states are compared in our research study, including the 2018 federal survey baseline.
| Protection | Iowa law | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| One-year renewable lease term unless there is good cause for non-renewal | Partly | Only the term limb is met. A rental agreement runs for one year unless the agreement specifies otherwise, but the same subsection lets either party cancel on ninety days' written notice without cause, so there is no good-cause requirement for ending or declining to renew a tenancy. (Iowa Code § 562B.10; Iowa Code § 562B.30) |
| 30-day written notice of rent increases | Required | Every resident must be notified in writing of any rent increase at least ninety days before it takes effect, statewide, which is three times the thirty days this protection asks for. (Iowa Code § 562B.14) |
| 5-day grace period for rent payments and the right to cure defaults on rent payments | Partly | The cure limb is met and the grace limb is not. A nonpayment termination requires three days' written notice stating the landlord's intention to end the agreement if the rent is not paid within that time, so the resident may always cure; but no statute bars a late fee in the first days after the due date, the act only capping late fees in dollars per day and per month, and a possession action may be brought once rent is three days late. (Iowa Code § 562B.25; Iowa Code § 562B.10) |
| Right to sell the manufactured home without having to first relocate it out of the community | Required | A landlord may not deny a resident the right to sell the home at a price of the resident's own choosing, and its reserved power is to approve the buyer as a tenant, which assumes the home stays on the space; the only power to require removal is the narrow one for a home in a rundown condition or in disrepair on a sale to a third party. A lease term requiring a modification that would substantially impair the ability to move the home is also void. (Iowa Code § 562B.19; Iowa Code § 562B.11) |
| Right to sell the manufactured home in place within 30 days after eviction by the community owner | Not required | No provision gives an evicted resident any period to sell the home in place. Once the agreement ends the landlord proceeds to a possession action under the eviction chapter, and a home left behind is dealt with under the abandonment section and the valueless-homes chapter. (Iowa Code § 562B.25; Iowa Code § 562B.27) |
| Right to sublease or assign the pad site lease for the unexpired term to the new buyer of the home without unreasonable restraint | Required | The landlord may reserve the right to approve the buyer of the home as a tenant, but that permission may not be unreasonably withheld, which is the unreasonableness standard this protection calls for; a refusal must be given to the buyer in writing with the general reason for it. (Iowa Code § 562B.19) |
| Right to post "For Sale" signs that comply with the community's rules | Not required | No provision in the act protects a for-sale sign; the word does not appear in the chapter, so a sign restriction is left to the community's own rules. (Iowa Code § 562B.19) |
| Right to receive at least 60 days' notice of a planned sale or closure of the community | Not required | Neither limb is met. Residents get no notice that a community is being sold, the act's only community-sale section merely passing the landlord's obligations to the buyer, and there is no closure or change-of-use notice at all. (Iowa Code § 562B.16A; Iowa Code § 562B.10) |
Notes and caveats
- Three homes brings a community inside the act — A mobile home park is a site with three or more mobile, manufactured or modular homes on developed spaces, operated for profit, with water, sewer or septic and electrical services available. A second route in, the manufactured home community, is a land-leased community of ten or more occupied manufactured homes under common ownership, and it carries no for-profit or utility condition. The same rules apply either way.
- Ninety days is the number to remember, and it used to be sixty — The same ninety days applies to a rent increase and to ending the agreement from either side. The legislature raised both from sixty in 2022, effective for increases first noticed on or after May 17, 2022. Sources describing a sixty-day Iowa notice are describing repealed law.
- Rent increases are tied to the end of the term, not to the calendar — An increase may not take effect before the current agreement, or any renewal or extension of it, expires. Because an agreement runs for one year unless it says otherwise, this usually means one increase a year, but a shorter term written into the agreement produces a shorter cycle. The definition of rent takes in utilities, late fees and other payments to the landlord, so the ninety-day notice reaches more than the base figure.
- No reason is needed to end a tenancy — Either side may cancel on ninety days' written notice, and the act sets out no list of grounds a landlord has to fit within. The one express limit is that a landlord may not cancel solely to make the space available for another mobile home. Retaliation is separately barred, with a complaint made within the previous year raising a presumption that the landlord acted in retaliation.
- The act is silent on closure and on the sale of the community — There is no closure or change-of-use notice, no relocation payment, no notice to a government body, no notice to residents that the community is for sale, and no purchase right. When a community closes, what residents receive is the ordinary ninety days' notice of cancellation. The section headed as covering the sale of a community contains one sentence, and it says only that the buyer takes over the seller's obligations, rights and remedies under every rental agreement.
- Late fees are capped in dollars, with no grace period — Where rent is $700 a month or less, a rental agreement may not provide for a late fee above $12 a day or $60 a month; above $700 the limits are $20 a day and $100 a month. Nothing delays the first late fee, and a landlord may bring a possession action once rent is three days late, though a three-day notice giving the resident the chance to pay must come first.
- Selling the home in place is protected, and the buyer test is reasonableness — A landlord may not deny a resident the right to sell at a price of the resident's own choosing, may not take a commission unless it acted as agent under a written agreement, and may not unreasonably withhold approval of the buyer as a tenant, though a refusal need only give the general reason in writing. On a sale to a third party the landlord may require a home in a rundown condition or in disrepair to be removed within sixty days. There is no protection for a for-sale sign.
- No agency runs this act, and local rent limits are off the table — No state body administers the chapter; rights under it are enforced by action in the district court, and a claim may be brought as a small claim. Cities and counties are barred from imposing any limitation on the amount of rent that can be charged for private residential property, which covers a community lot. Public housing conducted under the state municipal housing chapter, or under any federal law or regulation with which the act might conflict, falls outside the act altogether.
Common questions: Iowa mobile home park law
Each answer is the verified value from the tables above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.
- How much notice must an Iowa park give before raising lot rent?
- 90 days. Ninety days' written notice is required before a lot-rent increase takes effect.
- Is there a limit on how much lot rent can go up in Iowa?
- Iowa sets no state rule on this. Iowa sets no ceiling on how much lot rent may rise.
- Can an Iowa park owner end a lot tenancy without cause?
- Yes — Iowa law does not require a cause. Iowa does not require a reason to end a lot tenancy.
- How much notice must an Iowa park give before closing or changing use?
- Iowa sets no state rule on this. Closing a community or changing its use triggers no special notice in Iowa.
- Does an Iowa park have to pay residents' relocation costs when it closes?
- Iowa sets no state rule on this. No relocation payment is required of anyone when a community closes.
- Do Iowa residents get a chance to buy the park when it is sold?
- No — Iowa law gives residents no right to buy the park. Iowa residents have no right to buy the community.
- Can an Iowa resident sell the home in place without moving it out of the park?
- Yes — an Iowa resident may sell the home in place. A landlord may not deny a resident the right to sell the home at a price of the resident's own choosing.
Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Iowa Mobile Home Park Laws (verified August 18, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/mobile-home-parks/iowa/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).
Citations
- Iowa Code ch. 562B (verified 2026) Official source
- Iowa Code § 562B.1 (verified 2026) Official source
- Iowa Code § 562B.5 (verified 2026) Official source
- Iowa Code § 562B.7 (verified 2026) Official source
- Iowa Code § 364.3 (9) (verified 2026) Official source
- Iowa Code § 331.304 (10) (verified 2026) Official source
- 2022 Iowa Acts ch. 1070 (House File 2562) §§ 1–16 (verified 2026) Official source
Every row above links the section it rests on. This topic covers all 50 states; the topic hub compares them side by side.